Absentia (2011)

Let me start off by saying that I thoroughly a majority of this film. Created on a low budget, they had some good acting, the music set the tone perfectly for just about every scene and it has a few decent jump scares.Now for the bad stuff: The ending. The final scene leaves MUCH to be desired and leaves you feeling extremely unfulfilled and with many questions left without answers. Now I suppose you could say this was the intent of the writers to leave you feeling like this as it is also how characters feel at times during the movie, but I say it's just poor writing.

SO...I don't know how many of you have had the misfortune of watching this movie, but if you haven't...DON'T! If you have, I am wondering how you felt about this film. I understand that the dynamic of things are changing these days, but c'mon. This movie had NO story line, minimal dialogue, and there was no who, what, where, when, why facts answered even after throwing 2 hours my life away. I know that some may truly enjoy this element of Absentia because its open ended and you can put together your own ending and story line, but I look at it as being lazy. I mean, if this is the way that movies are going to be made now a days, my untalented ass may as well thrown some low budget crap together and trick you all in to watching it while giving me your money to do so at the same time. There was NOTHING scary about this movie. NOTHING was suspenseful. I guess maybe it DOES contain mystery but only because it is difficult...almost IMPOSSIBLE to understand. This movie gets a 2 from me only because when the 2 ladies in this film DID act, they did it wholeheartedly and their crying was believable.

It's unusual to see a horror/supernatural movie that isn't packed full of clichés, but Absentia makes a good attempt to be something a little different. The plot is simple enough: a woman has her husband declared legally dead after an unexplained absence of seven years, but then he mysteriously reappears, apparently with little memory of events. Unfortunately, he seems to have brought something nasty back with him.What makes the movie different, is that the 'nasty' -- whatever it is -- is seldom apparent. We get just the occasional glimpse. It seems to be associated with a spooky tunnel, but in ways that never become clear. In fact, at the risk of being a spoiler, I think I've just summarized the entire movie.This isn't an action movie, and it has few outright scary moments. Very little happens that is out of the ordinary -- most of the story focuses on the odd, rather strained relationships between the central characters, all of whom have things to hide and may -- or may not -- know more about events than they let on.From start to finish there is an atmosphere of brooding menace, which becomes increasingly intense as the story unfolds. Everybody is scared of something, although it is never made particularly explicit whether the nasty thing actually exists in objective terms, or is just a figment of one or other characters' overwrought imagination.Unlike many modern horror movies, this one does actually have a proper ending; that is, events come to a clear conclusion. It's not a conclusion that makes a whole heap of sense, in narrative terms, but at least I didn't get the impression that the film-makers just carried on until they had enough stuff for a movie, and then went home.All in all, one of the best horror/supernatural movies I've seen for a long time.

Written and directed by Mike Flanagan, Absentia finds Tricia (Courtney Bell) and Callie (Katie Parker) as two sisters who come to believe that the underpass nearby could be linked to the many disappearances in the area.A slow burn indie horror is not everybody's idea of a good time, but Flanagan has crafted a smart atmospheric chiller, one with a nifty fairy tale fantasy bubbling away under the surface. Narratively it's low-key, though the air of grief and terror is palpable. The setting is a low rent area of Los Angeles, a place where the girls are told to always keep the doors locked, with the ominous underpass haunting the edges of every other frame.Flanagan filters his story through the urban locale while populating it with characters who are haunted by something unseen, or by others who are troubled by personal issues (Tricia's husband disappeared 7 years ago and Callie is fighting a needle habit). The formula scares are kept to a minimum, Flanagan choosing to imbue the story with a sense of dread, toying with the sisters and us the viewers that there just may be something truly awful lurking just out of the eye line.This is not a creature feature, like The Relic or Mimic, this is a different horror film to those. The horrors are born out of what you don't see, or what you barely glimpse, just like the classic horrors of yesteryear, with Flanagan cheekily dangling ambiguity into the bargain. It's unnerving and sad, creepy yet cunning, and a refreshing experience for those tired of big effects driven horror movies. If you like the slow burn less is more approach, with well written human drama in the bargain? Then give this a chance. 8/10